Category Archives: Farming and Growing Food

Moosewood Restaurant is pleased to invite you to a special screening of

Can You Dig This

a documentary about the guerilla gardeners of South LA

at Cinemapolis, Dec. 3rd at 7 pm

Can You Dig This follows an urban gardening movement taking root in South LA, where people are planting to transform their neighborhoods and are changing their own lives in the process. Watch the trailer here.

Co-sponsored by GreenStar Community Projects, Groundswell, Building Bridges and Natural Leaders Initiative, we will host a pre-screening reception at 6:30 (with food by Moosewood) plus a talk-back on farming, gardening and food sovereignty with leaders in our community after the show.

On May 13, 202 people attended a Community Forum to learn about Collective Impact processes creating big successes in various communities, and possible “big results” we might want to work on in Tompkins County.

41 organizations asked to be added to the Building Bridges Coalition list *

100+ new people have joined the Building Bridges Network listserve96% of you said you learned more about Collective Impact
96% of you said that CI is a direction that we should pursue as a community
97% of you said the time was worthwhile
89% of you said you would do your work differently as a result of the time we spent together.

Once again, a big THANK-YOU to

GreenStar staff support, use of The Space and coffee, tea, fruit salad, yogurt and pastries

MRC for the mini-bagels

GIAC for the cheese, crackers and cookies

Ithaca Bakery for the pastries

Moosewood Restaurant for the Brownies and Vegan Chocolate Cake

CCE staff for stuffing packets

Park Foundation for supporting this intro to Collective Impact

*If you would like your organization added, please contact Kirby Edmonds at 607/277-3401

Freeing Ourselves From Systems that Weaken & Divide Us

Through our scientific and technological genius, we have made of this world a neighborhood and yet we have not had the ethical commitment to make of it a brotherhood. But somehow, and in some way, we have got to do this…We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality …whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

Delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. over 45 years ago as an impassioned call for “Remaining Awake through a Great Revolution”, these words seem more relevant than ever to the linked economic, environmental and social calamities we face today. Our global economy and its effects on nearly every facet of our lives is increasingly seen as a root of these problems. With a warming climate and epic failures like the BP oil disaster and financial crisis, this system and its structures are looking catastrophically flawed and outdated. The “economic genius” of Frankensteinian creations like derivatives has turned our world economy into a shell game, with perhaps the worse yet to come.

Communities have become ground zero for a resource extraction model seeking to maximize short-term profits for distant stock holders while externalizing as many costs as possible. Those “externalities” include many of our own who are left behind as the divide between the haves and multiplying have-nots grows. Making matters worse, the reach and influence of the too-big-to-fail juggernauts responsible for these crises extends deep into our systems of governance, playing no small part in the recent government shut-down.

At the same time, a growing number of communities like our own are grappling with how to sustain basic civic infrastructure, including water, transportation, health, social services and educational systems. Put into place decades or centuries ago, many are now crumbling and we find ourselves without adequate means to maintain or replace them. Extreme events like Hurricanes Irene and Sandy, expected to increase in frequency, are also revealing a lack of resilience in our support systems and compromised landscapes.

We seem to be caught in a destructive feedback loop, unable to break free from a system that is continually reinforcing itself (with the help of bailouts and subsidies) while weakening our communities and endangering the planet. Some are wondering what alternatives might exist – how can we reinvent a new economy that serves, not consumes us?

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. -Buckminster Fuller

Unseen by some, another great revolution, or “reimagining” is already occurring. It is rising from communities like our own, leveraging the power of We to solve intractable problems collectively. Here are some signs of and guideposts for this emergent and hopeful movement.Continue reading →

It’s dead. Thanks to you. And hundreds of thousands of people like you who signed petitions, and called their representatives and senators, the Monsanto Protection Act has, officially, expired.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) pushed hard to kill the Monsanto Protection act, a biotech industry-friendly rider attached to the government funding bill that expired on September 30. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) made sure the rider was stripped from the Senate version of the new bill to fund the government. Of course, as we all know by now, there currently is no new bill to fund the government, thanks in large part to the antics of Republican Tea Partiers. But at least we know the Monsanto Protection Act won’t be in the next funding bill. Assuming Congress ever gets around to passing one.

So score one for the anti-Monsanto, anti-GMO movement. With the Monsanto Protection Act dead, Monsanto no longer gets immunity from prosecution for illegally growing GMO crops.

Sometimes we wonder if those petitions and phone calls really matter. But remember. No matter which senator pounded the final nail into the Monsanto Protection Act’s coffin, you provided the hammer. This is our victory!

Hello esteemed community-colleagues. We very much hope you will be able to join the next “Feeding Our Future” conversation on August 15 at GIAC. We’ll hear from leaders of several important food justice initiatives in the community, and share insights, innovations, information and ideas for building a food system that serves EVERYBODY in our community. Please do share this message with others in your organization and neighborhood. Thank you so much!